Topological Creutz Ladder in a Resonantly Shaken 1D Optical Lattice

Abstract: We report the experimental realization of a topological Creutz ladder for ultracold fermionic atoms in a resonantly driven 1D optical lattice. The two-leg ladder consists of the two lowest orbital states of the optical lattice and the cross inter-leg links are generated via two-photon resonant coupling between the orbitals by periodic lattice shaking. The characteristic pseudo-spin winding in the topologically non-trivial bands of the ladder system is demonstrated using momentum-resolved Ramsey-type interferometric measurements. We discuss a two-tone driving method to extend the inter-leg link control and propose a topological charge pumping scheme for the Creutz ladder system.